Helen Myers - Final Stand

Replacing everything, he checked a zippered compartment and took out a manila envelope. “Bingo,” he murmured as a treasure trove of documents fell out. He sifted through a second license, a birth certificate and a few photos…and froze as he opened a small leather billfold.

“Well, I’ll be damned.”

After browsing through everything, Gray repacked it all, but with far less care than before. Closing up behind himself, he loped toward Frank’s office, this time oblivious to the sting of the stones.

A neat brick building, Bitters’s police station remained locked tight more often than it was occupied, partly due to the town’s inability to fund more than a staff of two including Frank, with a part-time night patrolman for weekends, holidays and emergencies. Day Officer Kenny Plummer’s patrol car was undoubtedly parked in his driveway. “Murph” Cox wouldn’t use his vehicle until Friday night, but he was allowed to keep it at his place in case of heretofore-nonexistent emergencies. Gray knew better than most what a dubious department the trio made. Fortunately, until now, this blink-and-miss town hadn’t needed much in the way of law enforcement. They didn’t draw much traffic off of I–10 to worry about crime waves, even with the convenience store–gas station being the only fuel for ten miles.

The news he now possessed could change that, and he wasn’t certain Frank Elias was the one to pass it over to. Frank clung hard to his reckless and irreverent ways with a stubbornness Gray would find difficult to stomach without the bad blood between them. Nevertheless, as he entered the station, he was willing to put that aside. More important at the moment was justice, and making sure the law hadn’t been abused. What he saw across the dimly lit room, however, thrust that into the back of his mind.

Across the room Frank was all over Anna Diaz like latex on a professional wrestler. What’s more, the way his hands were groping her had nothing to do with an official body search.

“Elias.”

Gray stormed across the room, grabbed a handful of the startled man’s collar and yanked him off her.

“What the fuck—Slaughter, get your hands off me!”

Gray obliged by shoving the cop toward his desk. Frank missed his chair and went sprawling beneath the table. “You don’t get enough willing tail, you have to resort to this?”

“She was trying to escape.”

“He’s lying!” Anna turned, but needed the wall to keep standing. With shaking hands, she closed the snaps on her denim shirt. “He attacked me.”

Frank snorted as he rose. “Yeah, and you were fighting so hard. Admit it, you wanted it.”

“Is that why her cheek’s rubbed raw from that wall?” Gray demanded. He shook his head in disgust. “You’re a pig.”

This was Frank’s weakness—keeping his hands to himself, discretion, respect, especially when it came to women. Even knowing that his past behavior had cost him the one person he claimed to love, as well as his boyhood friendship with Gray. The man hadn’t learned a damn thing after all these years.

“Stick it up your ass.” Scrambling to his feet, Frank settled on the edge of his desk. “What are you doing here, anyway?”

As far as Gray was concerned, what he had come to say was no longer Frank’s business. If guilty of something, Anna Diaz could take it up with someone who deserved to wear a badge.

“It’s late and I have to get up early,” he replied. “I wanted to settle Ms. Diaz’s account and call it a day. Instead I find this. Do you realize how deep a shithole you’ve dug for yourself this time?”

“I was interviewing her. She went out of control. You heard her pushing it earlier.”

“You were provoking me.” Anna clenched her hands at her sides. “There’s nothing else to say. At least not what you want to hear.”

Some of his bravado was returning and Frank smiled smugly. “The night’s young and the doc here turns in early. Want to keep trying?”

Gray got the gist of what was going on. “You asked for a witness statement. Did you get it?”

“I think she’s lying.”

“You asked for a statement.”

“And I’m telling you that she may be our arsonist.”

“Based on what evidence?”

“She’s too anxious to get away from here.”

Gray could only stare at him. “Do you know the person you’ve just described? Anyone with an IQ over Pike’s brother’s after spending more than ten minutes in your presence. Anyway, guilty or not, you’ve denied her her rights.”

As the old animosity between them heated to its new combustion point, a feathery twitch started at Frank’s right eyelid. “So now you’re an expert in law enforcement as well as horse manure, Doc?”

Undaunted, Gray snapped, “You don’t have squat in evidence, including probable cause. I’ll bet my license on it.”

“A lot that’s worth these days. As for evidence, I’ll get what I need.”

“No doubt. But whether the end result is your plan for outright rape or simple intimidation, unless she’s willing to let you screw her just to get out of here, I’m telling you it isn’t going to happen.”

Frank began to rise, only to check himself. Settling back on the desk, he crossed his arms and resumed that all-too-familiar smile. “My hunch was right. She’s got your juices stirred, too.”

Gray had heard enough. He motioned to Anna. “Let’s go.”

With more eagerness than a pup heading for the exit at his clinic, she started for the door. The next thing Gray heard was the release of the snap on Frank’s holster, followed by him sliding a round into the chamber of his sidearm.

He and Anna came to an immediate halt.

Gray looked over his shoulder. “Are you nuts?”

Frank’s gaze shifted to the gun as though belatedly realizing what he’d done. Redirecting it toward the ceiling, he said to Anna, “You don’t leave town.”

“I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Then you don’t need to worry, do you?”

“Take my statement, let me sign it and let me go.”

He tilted his head as though seriously considering the idea. “I think I’ll wait until morning. Give you time to reconsider your attitude.”

Gray pointed at him, intent on drawing his attention. “The next time she comes here, it’ll be with an attorney. Are you prepared for that?”

“Paid for by who?” Frank taunted. “You gonna do it, Saint Gray? The way you’re running down your business, it’s a good thing you collected on all of those insurance policies.”

A red veil of fury dropped over Gray’s vision and he took a step forward. Luckily for him, Anna checked him by gripping his arm.

“I’ll be paying my own way,” she told Elias. “With pleasure.” And this time she didn’t wait for Gray to beckon her, she stormed out of the building.

Fighting his own temper, he didn’t catch up with her for several yards. When he did, she didn’t so much as spare him a glance as she headed for her van.

“You could say thank you,” he said, no less angry than she was.

“If it wasn’t for you giving me a hard time about that damn dog, I wouldn’t be in this mess. You could have taken her and let me go. But no, you had to cop an attitude yourself, and now look at what you’ve done. As far as I’m concerned, you’re no better than he is.”

As that triggered a spasm of guilt, Gray found himself mesmerized by her profile. In the obscure and changing light, passion blazed in eyes as exotic as an Egyptian cat’s, her lush hair lifted off her shoulders like a night raven in a graceful glide. The romantic analogies were ludicrous to someone who’d lost interest in women, in everything he’d ever cared about. But like it or not, there was no denying this woman was something else. He needed grounding fast. He needed to know, was he setting himself up to make the mistake of mistakes?